


From The Human's Eyes

by darya383idk



Series: From The Humans Eyes [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Chara (Undertale) Backstory, Good Chara (Undertale), Human Sans (Undertale), Inspired By Undertale, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Pre-Undertale, References to Undertale Genocide Route, Spoilers - Undertale Genocide Route, Spoilers - Undertale Pacifist Route, Undertale Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2019-12-26 09:33:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18280454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darya383idk/pseuds/darya383idk
Summary: So this is basically going to be what I think happened to each human and what caused the happenings of the game. Some of it is completely head-canon but it's mostly just a crazy theory.





	1. First Human

**Author's Note:**

> Chara's story.  
> I'm going to switch the pov to the other humans later on but Chara's story is probably the most detailed one except... spoilers..?

I was planting the seeds when the older kids called my name. I was in the garden because my mother told me to plant the Buttercups, but I was excited to finally have something to look forward too. The flowers were to be yellow and shiny at spring, and I thought they would look cheerful and bright in the sunlight. 

Despite my disdain for the people in my village, I came running to the older kids that called my name. They tended to be on the violent side and were not patient.

I came stumbling to a group of about four kids, with the "leader" being a tall girl with brown braids that looked as if she had taken a bite out of a lemon with the peel on. "Ha! Would you look at that! I think you've gotten even more graceful, airhead!" the leader barked, no offense to dogs, "We hear you were pretty brave the other day, smashing that spider on the desk at school, and so we thought you would be perfect to go smash some monsters as well!".

'Brave'? No, 'brave' is someone who does something even though they are scared, and the only thing I seem to fear is other humans beating me or my future in this nowhere called 'village'.

"Legend has it, there are fuckin' monsters livin' under Mount Ebott!" said a boy with fake glasses I was pretty sure he stole, "And we want you to go fight 'em!" 

"Ok," I said.  
If anything, I'd probably enjoy the monster's company more than the people here. 

"But they say no one comes back from climbing Mt.Ebott!" panicked a short kid with orange, striped overalls, and a black eye, "Guys, we should really stop this! Airhead might actually die!"

"Shut up dumbass! Nothing ever happens in this fucking place, so what if they die?!" said the leader, "I'll kill you if you don't go!" she yelled at me now.

"Fine. I'll go." it sounded interesting, so I might as well. She was right, nothing ever happens in this place. Maybe if I die mother might actually care for once.

The leader gave me a kitchen knife and said: “Just in case there really are monsters, we want you to kill them.” 

“Sure, whatever you say,” I said with so little emotion they couldn’t tell if I was being sarcastic or serious.

And with a small sense of victory over the dumbfounded group, I started my trip up Mt. Ebott.

 

I recognized a few types of plants that grew over fall and kept climbing.  
The nothingness in my soul grew as I got higher and the wind blew colder. I tripped on a tree root and looked back at the now distant village.  
It looked so far away and I wanted it to stay that way forever. Ah, the smell of freedom. Smelled like pine trees.  
I noticed a stalactite cave with a large and inviting entrance (ok maybe the "inviting" part was just me) and saw a big pit in the ground. The pit had vines growing in it, and it was too dark to see where it lead.  
I guess it can't be worse than here, nothing can be worse than this.  
I took another couple of steps closer, only to trip on a large vine on the ground.  
I fell into the hole, screaming and waving my arms. It wasn't fair! I didn't even get to make the decision!  
For the first time since I could remember myself, I was filled with determination.

The fall was hard, but not as long as you'd expect. I almost blacked-out when...

"It sounds like it came from over here... Oh! You've fallen down, haven't you." The voice seemed nice. "Are you okay? Here, get up..." the white blur said.

I replied with "My name Chara." though, it could be anything I guess.

"...Chara, huh? That's a nice name. M y n a m e i s" 

I woke up in the hands of someone.... or... something?? It held me gently in its arms, but it had white fur!  
I jumped out of what I can only call the best hug-ish I ever had and looked up.

What I saw was... strange to say the least. I would have thought I had died and got to hell, if not for the monster's kind eyes.  
He looked like a humanoid goat, with white fur, blond hair, a blond beard, and a crown. Was the legend true? Were there monsters living in here? Did I survive a fall that high just to die by the hands of a fricking goat?! 

"Howdy! That was quite the fall you took! It's a good thing my son managed to heal you or else..." the monster was speaking?! And it had an accent?! "Anyways, I'm Asgore, Asgore Dreemurr! And this is my son Asriel," he pointed to a younger version of him, that was smiling nervously.

"I-it's nice to meet you, Chara." the boy spoke with a small but clear voice. Sounds… familiar.  
Wait... how does he know my name? Oh. So Asriel was that white blur.

"I-I um... I heard that monsters kill humans, but-uh- I guess that's not the case... you seem very nice. I just thought I'd have a look around this place but if you don't want me here I could just leave..." I knew it was selfish, but I could just feel how kind and welcoming they were. I really didn't want to go back now.

"Golly, I've never gotten such a nice greeting from a human before..." said Asgore Dreemurr, "I'm afraid that leaving here would be impossible without a monster soul, Chara..." 

"What if they want to stay?" said Asriel, "I-I mean... If you want, I could give you a tour of our city... 'Home'!"

Do I! I have so many questions that would be too embarrassing to ask, a tour would be perfect!  
"I'd love to!" I said, "You guys are the first monsters I've ever met and I would love to meet more!"

"Dad, can I...?" Asriel asked, giving Asgore a puppy-dog (goat??) face. 

"Let's ask your mom first, son," Asgore said, nervously, "Chara, you stay here for now alright? I'll bring Toriel here after we finish talking. Asriel, please keep them company." 

"Sure thing." I answered.

"Oh! Can I play Go-Fish with Chara, dad?" Asriel asked with a sweet tone.

"If they want to, sure!" Asgore answered, "Play nice Asriel!"  
And with that, he left.

I noticed the room I was in was a bedroom, big enough for two people but with only one small bed.  
Its walls were a warm orange color and it didn't have any windows. I guessed it was Asriel's room.

Asriel explained the game to me and we started to play.  
It was really fun and I even started teasing him a bit as I won: "I thought you already played this game before!" I said smiling.

"Wah- I did! This is your beginner's luck! I won't lose again! haha," he said, sticking his tongue out of his smile. "But tell me the truth, did you really not play this game before?"

"I heard about it, but I guess I didn't have anyone to play it with..." I said, smile turning bitter "That's kinda lame, isn't it? Heh." 

"I... I only ever played it with my parents, and they are usually busy running the kingdom and what not..." he said, smile fading "but maybe if you stayed, we could play together and-"

"Chara?" Asriel was cut off by Asgore, who was now standing near the doorframe, "Could you come to meet my wife now? She's very interested in meeting you." 

"Sure! I'll come right away!" I smiled and walked over to the king.

We walked in a tidy hallway, with several potted plants.  
They must be a type that needs little to no sunlight to survive… Oh! Typha! 

We reached a living room with a lit fireplace and another goat monster sitting on a reading chair next to it.

She had much smaller horns then Asgore and her eyes seemed curious and on-guard.  
She eyed me with conflicted feelings as she said: "Greetings, I am Toriel".

"Hello! My name is Chara, I've fallen down here. B-but I guess you already know that huh? Sorry, I just heard the rumors that there are monsters living around here and wanted to meet you!" I said, excitedly "Your husband and son have been very welcoming and Asriel offered me a tour around the city, is it ok if I go with him?"

"Well, the truth is... oh how I put this...” she thought for a moment, ”You see, long ago, two races ruled over Earth: humans and monsters. One day, war broke out between the two races. After a long battle, the humans were victorious. They sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell." 

She took a moment to see my reaction. I was surprised, no one ever told me that before.  
Everyone I knew of thought monsters weren't real and that if they were, they are some kind of terrible creatures that consumed humans for power.

She continued: "Since then, we have been trapped here with no means of escape...  
Most monsters fear humans now, and that's why Gori had to talk to me before I met you." 

Wow, humans must be as awful as I thought and maybe worse.  
"I'm sorry..." I said, honestly, "This is the first time I heard of that. I promise to be nice to the monsters and apologize for what the humans have done to them... Also… please let me stay here! I don't want to go back to my house!"

Toriel and Asgore's jaws fell for a second and Toriel said, with sad eyes, "I think it is best that you go have that tour, for now, see if you even like it here. Gorey and I will discuss this." 

"Thank you so much! I'll go get Asriel!" I said with a big, sincere smile on my face. 

 

"Hey, Asriel! Your parents said you can give me the tour now!"

"Sweet! Hmm," He looked at my muddy yellow shirt and said, "Maybe you should change to something cleaner and slightly warmer... Would you like to wear one of my sweaters? It looks just like the one I'm wearing now and I think we are the same size."

"Good idea. Wouldn't want to make a bad first impression on the other monsters." I agreed.

Asriel opened the closet near the bed and handed me his sweater.  
It was green with a big, yellow stripe on it. 

He then left the room for me to change. I changed in a hurry and walked out to get going.

Asriel look at me for a moment, "Alright! Let's go!" he said and off we went!

We traveled around 'Home' and met so many kinds of monsters!  
Some frogs, some fish, some dogs so much more- and all sentient!  
They were mostly afraid or mad at first, but after Asriel explained how I got there, and after I apologized for what had happened to them, they seemed to loosen up.  
Some kids even asked me a lot of questions about being a human. I answered to the best of my abilities before Asriel cut me off.  
I swear at least one of these kids is gonna be a scientist when they grow up.  
Probably the most curious girl, a yellow lizard monster with a pair of glasses on. 

The city, in general, seemed very crowded.  
When I told Asriel about this, he said that the monsters here had to live with tiny living space, to fit all the people in 'Home'. 

"Is this place really all that's left to live in? Couldn't the monsters dig and find new places to live in? The Mountain that you're in has a lot of caves, so I assume it has a lot more underground space." I asked.

"Well, from what I heard, the monsters don't search for more space to live in because they're scared of humans hiding in those new spaces." He said with an annoyed tone, "I think most monsters have only heard about humans from stories of the war, so they don't really know what they are capable or incapable of."

"Well, I think I could relieve some of those fears, then maybe the monsters could have more space to live in!" I said, gears turning through my head, "We should ask the king to get me on the newspaper! Do you even have newspapers? I guess any kind of media would be fine..."

"Let's go back home then! You should talk about it with mom and dad. It's getting late anyway and mom is probably making dinner by now." He said, "Oh, and we have newspapers, by the way."

 

We got back to the cute, tidy house. It made me feel determined, to help the monster kind after all the humans have done to harm them. 

"Mom! Dad! We're home!" Asriel raised his voice.

“Greetings, my children. Did you have fun?" Toriel greeted us.

"Yeah! Chara and I spoke to a lot of monsters and I think most of them like Chara! They were very polite and funny!" Asriel answered enthusiastically, "They had this idea for helping the monsters! Chara tell her!" 

"Um... Maybe we should talk about this over the dinner I heard about?" I said. I wanted to think about how to put my idea into words so that the king and queen will listen to it.

"That will be splendid. Gorey and I also have a suggestion for you, Chara." Toriel said with a warm smile. "Azzy, I have made your favorite."  
He gasped and said: "Butterscotch pie?! Yes!!! Chara, you'll love this!"

"Wait, pie for dinner? Isn't that more of a dessert?" I asked, "Not that I'm complaining.  
Wait, and is monster food different than human food or something?" 

"I believe human food is mostly made out of physical materials is it not? Monster food is made out of mostly magic, so I am not sure how it will work with your human body..." 

Maybe I could make something for myself, that's what I usually did in my house anyway.  
"Let me try the pie. If it won't fill my stomach I am sure I could make something out of the water sausages I saw growing around the house." I said.

"Those are edible? But they have little to none magical properties?" Toriel asked, worried, "Oh, I assume that would be the point." She added, awkwardly.

"Come sit! Chara, we didn't have an extra chair in the house, so I will sit in my desk chair and you can have my chair." Toriel said, gesturing to the table in the living room. There sat a new chair that I have not seen before.

"Are you sure? I could always eat outside if you want me to… I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable." I said. I usually had to eat in my room or outside at my house.

Toriel and her son looked shocked and she said "Oh no, you will be sitting with us! We will get an extra chair for you soon enough, and my desk chair is quite the opposite of uncomfortable for me. I sit in it so much it has taken my form, we call it "Chairiel" sometimes." She added with a smile. She added Jazz Hands as she said "Chairiel".

"Haha!" I laughed, those kind of jokes are the dumbest, and that’s why I like them so much.

"Oh no! They're like you!" Asriel said with an exaggerated frown. "I won't ever get a break in this house will I?" 

"Yes Asriel, we will never let you GOAT all!" I said with a big, dumb grin on my face.

"Hahaha! Goat one Chara!" Toriel laughed.  
I joined the laughing, the funniest ones are the dumbest ones!

"Daaadddd! Come save meeee!" Asriel said with a fake annoyed tone and a creeping smile.

"Do not worry my son, I am here to rescue you!" Asgore came in the front door, making a superhero pose.

He lifts Asriel up and starts tickling him, making all of us laugh together.

 

We all sat at the dinner table, there was a plate with a big slice of pie on it in front of every person.  
I wondered how my physical body would react to this magic pie as I sniffed it. It smelled delicious.  
I wanted to offer my idea to the parents but then Asgore began talking.

“Tori and I talked about you while you and Asriel where taking that trip, Chara. We talked about letting you stay with our family like you asked us and-“  
He was cut off by Toriel, “We have decided we would like you to stay with us if you’d like.”

YES! “I would! Like to stay with you, I mean.” I said with the brightest smile I ever had.

“Wonderful! I promise you, as long as you remain here… My wife and I will take care of you as best we can. We can sit in the living room, Telling stories. Eating butterscotch pie… We could be like… Like a family.” Asgore said, with a big, happy smile. I thought I saw tears in his eyes.  
I definitely saw some in mine as I smiled, taking a bite from the pie to swallow of the lump that was forming in my throat.

“This is so good!” I said, tears fading from my eyes at the sweet taste, “It feels like any normal human pie I’ve eaten… I guess it might not digest like human food does?”

“We will wait and see, my child,” Toriel said with a warm smile. 

“Chara! Maybe you should offer your idea?” Asriel said. I almost forgot about that. 

“Thank you, Asriel.” I said with a formal tone teasing smirk, causing Asriel to giggle a little.

 

“When we were on our trip around town, Asriel told about how small the living environment for the monsters here in ‘Home’ and why no one tried to dig and find new space and…” I paused to lift my eyes to look at the parents, “I think I can help with that.”

I paused to make sure they were still paying attention to me and saw that they were. Huh, people usually got bored when I talked for this long. I continued:  
“I, as a human, know for a fact that humans cannot and won’t live inside of a mountain.  
Humans are even more affected by the physical environment then monsters are, since we are built out of mostly physical matter.  
I believe we should find a way to tell the underground about this and start to find new spaces for the monsters to live in.”

Realizing my eyes have wondered down once again, I look up. 

Asgore and Toriel looked absolutely star struck, but that was nothing compared to Asriel’s astonished face! Nailed it!

The cake left me feeling better than ever and not only for its wonderful taste, we found out later that all monster food had a positive effect on humans.

 

Later, they let me have an interview for the underground newspaper and for the radio.  
And immediately after, the citizens started working on finding new space and building their homes.

It took close to a month to find a large space and settle there.  
The place became a village that was not-very-creatively named “Snowdin”, for the cold… weather?

The only monsters that moved there were either snow-monsters, monsters with thick fur or people that just really wanted to move out of the crowded area. The Royal Scientist also moved there, so I heard from Asgore, with his son. 

 

Closely after, we found another place close by and it had a bit of a warmer temperature and a lot of underground water pouring in from the softer soil above. Most of the monsters that occupied the place were water monsters, but a family of ghosts moved there as well. It was called “Waterfall”, and it was beautiful!

 

Asriel and I traveled to Waterfall a lot to play with the “Echo Flowers” that grew there. The Eacho Flowers repeated the last thing they heard over and over again, so we made them say some pretty silly stuff.  
We found some big caves with stones so shiny they looked like the real stars!  
When I told this to Asriel, an Echo Flower ‘heard’ and soon enough- the place had a “wishing room” where people wished upon the ‘stares’.  
They mostly wished to finally breaking free from the barrier and living in a place where the real stars shine.

 

It made me so frustrated that these innocent and kind creatures couldn’t leave the prison that the humans put them in.  
I asked Asgore: “How will we live the underground? There must be some kind of way?” 

“There is a way but we don’t have the power necessary for it. Maybe you should ask my friend W.D. Gaster. He will come for a visit tomorrow and I’ll make sure to let you ask him whatever you want.” he replied.

 

When I met Dr. Gaster, He was speaking to father with, well, Wingdings over a cup of tea on a sunny afternoon.  
Dr. Gaster was a skeleton with a long, black lab coat and he looked very tired.

I asked some questions about the barrier but couldn’t understand his answers, so Asgore translated his answers for me.  
“How is the barrier keeping everyone here? Is it magical?” I asked.

He spoke with his Wingdings in an annoyed tone, looking mostly at my faher and not at me.

The doctor was cut off by my father’s translation:  
“It takes one human soul and one monster soul just to walk through the barrier, but it will cost a monster taking seven human souls, possessing the power of a demon, to completely shatter it.” 

I noticed that his translation was much shorter than what Dr. Gaster said. I also noticed my father’s smile becoming strained. I let both of those slide, since I got the information I wanted. 

 

I left dad and the doctor to play with Asriel and Gaster’s son.  
A plan started forming in my head on the way outside, but it was too much to think about now.

I found them playing catch with one of Asriel’s toys, a small pink ball this time. 

Noticing me, the skeleton kid said:  
“HELLO HUMAN! MY NAME IS PAPYRUS GASTER! WHAT IS YOURS?” He posed dramatically as he spoke in Papyrus font. I supposed it was a genetic thing.  
Papyrus looked about our age and wore an orange shirt with red stripes on it. It didn’t seem to match how animated his personality is. 

“I am Chara, would you mind if I join the party?”

“THAT WOULD BE GREAT!” Heh, He seemed cool.

“Oh! Since we’re three people now, me and Papyrus can play catch over Chara, while they try to catch the ball.” Asriel added, slightly out of breath.

“But what if I catch it?” I asked. 

“Then you switch with whoever touched the ball last and play over his head!" Asriel explained happily, glad that he caught my interest.

“THAT SOUNDS MUCH COOLER THEN JUST PLAYING NORMAL CATCH! I’M IN!” 

We played for a bit and I noticed that Papyrus was throwing the ball way too high for me to catch, so I started facing Asriel all the time instead of looking at the ball.  
I finally managed to catch it! Asriel looked so sad that I almost felt bad for him.  
ALMOST. I did bit him fair and square. 

“Oh don’t be a crybaby about it!” I said, “Besides I want to throw the ball now.”

Asriel looked defeated as Papyrus said “DO NOT WORRY! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SAVE YOU FROM YOUR POOR FATE!” 

Papyrus switched places with me and the game continued.  
Until Papyrus caught my 2nd throw. Just in time for Dr. Gaster to walk in.

The doctor said something to Papyrus, looking a bit bitter but wearing a fake smile. Even though I shouldn’t count on how I read skeleton expressions.

“IT WAS GREAT! ASRIEL AND CHARA WERE VERY NICE!” Papyrus said, happily.

I gave Dr. Gaster an awkward smile. 

He looked at me and continue to talk to Papyrus immediately, ignoring me. Well, I was used to being ignored.

"IT WAS NICE FINALLY MEETING YOU, CHARA!" Papyrus' comment made me forget about his father for a moment.

I blushed a little and answered: "You too Papyrus, I hope I'll-uh-we'll be seeing you later." 

With that, the Royal Scientist and his son left. 

Leaving Asriel and I.  
Leaving me continuing to think about my plan. 

On our way back home, I didn't speak to Azzy, busy with my thoughts. He seemed to understand and didn't talk to me either.

 

I stayed up half a night, thinking. I knew what I had to do but the price was too much for now. "I just need a way. A good and fitting way. When I find it I'll tell Asriel and execute the plan."  
That is what I made myself think, as an excuse to have just a little more time with the people I loved most.


	2. First Human- Last Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What we've all been waiting for. Asriel will cry and I hope you will too. ;(

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oopsie?

It took a long time to find, around half a year, but sure enough, a very large place was discovered.  
I think it was close to some kind of magma source because it had a very hot temperature and a red glow to most of the place.  
Dad named it “Hotland”. I think he is getting worse at this.  
-  
Above Hotland, the monsters found a huge place with a very good temperature. Almost all of the people living in Home moved there, including my family. It became our capital and was called “New Home”. Asgore was definitely getting worse at naming.  
-  
Around this time I started calling Asgore and Toriel “dad” and “mom”. At first, it was an accident that happened because Asriel always called them that, but seeing how accepting they were of it, I kept doing so.  
-  
I have found an old video camera when we were unpacking.  
I started to take creepy videos of myself, making a weird, wide-eyed smile at the camera to scar Asriel. His reaction was just too funny so I did it multiple times and he started calling that smile my “creepy face”.  
-  
There was a big place where the sun crept in in New Home, a place close to a big open space where you could see the barrier clearly. The place became a throne room. If only you had enough power, you could have walked out with no effort.  
To the monsters it was a bit of hope, I assumed.  
To me it was a reminder, telling me what I had to do.  
Soon, I told myself. But there was only me, only my decisions made a difference.  
Seeing me lost in thought in the throne room, dad asked me what was wrong.  
“Nothing, it’s just…” I answered, quickly thinking of a good excuse. “It needs more color! More life! You do want the people to think of hope in this place, do you not?”  
“Hmm…” he took a moment to look at the grey place. The only thing that made it unique was the rare sunlight pouring in and the thrones. “It does look… a bit gloomy.” It looked like he was facing a legitimate dilemma, so I answered.  
“I think you could grow some flowers here. Buttercups are my personal favorite, they would look bright in the sunlight.”  
So just like that, the whole room became a garden that would blossom in six months.  
-  
After six months, the first flower bloomed! Asgore liked it so much, I decided to tear out the plants that grew around it, making a circle of no flowers around only one. Later on, dad told everyone who asked that that flower bloomed first. He was so proud!  
-  
With the help of Asriel, I managed to learn Froggit’s language. It took me about four months, through a lot of talking and hearing the language, I was now fluid in it.  
-  
It was dad’s birthday. I decided to knit him a pink sweater. It said "Mr. Dad Guy" on it, to remind him of that one time I talked about him with a Froggit and got confused on what to call him in third-person, everyone laughed. I laughed at it only after it actually happened.  
Asriel made him macaroni art of a flower. I never knew what kind of flower it was supposed to be, but I didn't want to offend him by asking.  
Asriel and I decided to bake him a butterscotch pie, his favorite (as well as Asriel’s. Well, I think Toriel's favorite was snail pie but let's not discuss that… I think I was the only one in the house who preferred chocolate).  
We asked for the recipe from mom and she gave it to us, making us promise not to tell anyone about the secret ingredient (it was cinnamon all along! I couldn’t believe I have not figured it out sooner).  
-  
I made a mistake. When I read to put in “butter-cups,” I thought of the flower.  
I understood my mistake after Asgore had tasted the pie and fell ill for a while. Toriel was very upset but I found it so funny. I laughed and couldn’t stop laughing, tears run down my face. But only when nobody saw.  
I think that’s when Asriel started to realize how broken I really was.  
-  
The incident gave me the way. Something that would be fitting. Something they won’t be able to heal and that would buy me some extra time that I so desperately wanted.  
Asriel liked using the video camera a lot lately.  
He came up to me, trying to film my “creepy face” only to realize the lens cap was on, what a goof.  
When I said I won’t do it again he said: “Come on, quit tricking me! Haha!”  
I thought he should be the one. He’s my best friend and we agreed on almost everything, being with his soul forever wouldn’t be bad.  
Also, he deserved to know about my plan more than anyone.  
-  
One time, he tried to prank me, by pretending to film my smile only to reveal the lens cap was on. Damn, got me good.  
I decided this was it, I was going to tell him.  
“Azzy, do you remember when we accidentally mixed up the butterscotch pie recipe?” I asked.  
.“”What? Oh yeah, I remember  
When we tried to make a butterscotch pie for dad, right? The recipe asked for cups of butter… But we accidentally put in buttercups instead.” He seemed much sadder then he was a second ago. “Yeah! Those flowers got him really sick  
I felt so bad.  
We made mom really upset. I should have laughed it off, like you did…  
Um, anyway, where are you going with this?” Asriel looked at me and blinked after he pulled himself out of the memory.  
“Turn off the camera, I need to tell you something.” I said. I didn’t want our parents finding the tape and stopping me.  
He turned it off and asked, “What did you want to say to me?” he looked so confused.  
“Asriel, could you promise to hear me out and to not tell anyone else about this, including mom and dad?” I asked.  
Sure Chara.” He said, “What is it?” He was looking at me with his worried eyes as I spoke.  
“I have a plan. A plan to free everyone from the underground. It is going to take a great sacrifice, and you have a big role in it.” I stopped for a second to let it sink.  
Azzy nodded, and I continued: “I am going to separate from my body, in order for you to take my soul. I want you to use my soul to cross the barrier, get six more human souls, then come back and shatter the barrier”.  
Asriel looked… puzzled. He stared at the ground with wide eyes and a closed mouth.  
“I will use the buttercup flowers since it seems mom and dad cannot heal the sickness you get from those. We must not tell them about the plan. They would try to stop it.” I said. “Asriel, you have to trust me. Like dad always says, we are the future of humans and monsters, we need to take action”.  
“Are you sure?” He looked at me, tears in his eyes. “A-are you sure you’re willing to die for this?” The tears left two lines of fur stuck downwards on his fluffy chicks.  
“I am sorry Asriel,” I said, trying to hold back my own tears, for him. “I cannot spend more time here, pretending I am not the answer to everyone’s hopes and dreams. Besides, dying won’t be so bad, once you take my soul, I can live on through you.”  
“You t-think?” He said.  
“Yes Asriel, you have to trust me, alright?” I needed him to.  
“Alright, I… I’ll trust you.” He wipes away his tears.  
-  
“Ok, now take as many flowers as you can. Hide them in your sweater.” I said while picking the flowers.  
At least my cause of death will be beautiful. I thought, they shimmered in the bit of sunlight that managed to get into the room.  
-  
When we got home, Asriel and I went quickly into our room.  
I hid the flowers in the closet and Azzy followed.  
“Alright, mom and dad are in the meeting right now, right?” I asked.  
“Yes, they said they will come home late today.” He replied.  
I got on the bed, pulled out a golden flower and ate it. It tasted so bitter, I ran to go get some water but that didn’t wash the taste away. I took two packs of chocolate from the fridge and took a big bite from one. That worked.  
-  
“Asriel! Chara! We’re home!” dad’s voice shook the house.  
“Um…” Asriel, who was apparently standing behind me, looked concerned.  
“We are in the kitchen!” I raised my voice.  
“Ah, there you are, my children!” mom said, coming into the kitchen. “Now what do we have here?”  
She looked amused at the pack of chocolate in my hand, noticing the big bite mark on it.  
“Chara, you know this stuff has a lot of physical sugar in it. It is way too late to be eating that now.” She pointed at the chocolate accusingly, “And that is not how you eat it anyways! What are you? An animal?” She smirked at me.  
“Hohoho, you know how they get with their chocolate, dear.” Asgore joined in, “Oh, Chara, are you alright?”  
I noticed that I’m drooling and I didn’t think it was because of the chocolate.  
“Oh my child, you do look a bit swollen… perhaps you should head to bed. I will try to heal you.”  
-  
We went to my room. Toriel tried to heal me but to no avail before leaving me to sleep.  
I felt sick, but I also felt good, in my soul. I felt like I had a purpose, to bring justice back to this world. I will persevere. I was determined.  
Asriel came by later, waking me up as he tripped on something in the dark but came by my side soon enough. I heard some monsters talk outside, so I assumed it was the next day.  
“I… I don’t like this idea, Chara.” Even in the dark, I could see big tears dripping down his face.  
“Come on, Azzy, don’t be a crybaby,” I said, managing a small smile.  
“Wh… what? N-no, I’m not… Big kids don’t cry.” He said. He always was bad at lying.  
“You do realize you can't lie to me, right?”  
“Yeah, you're right,” he said with a small smile.  
“You aren't breaking your promise, right? You need to trust me.”  
“No! I'd never doubt you, Chara... Never!” He raised his voice as much as he could, knowing our parents shouldn't hear.  
“We're doing the right thing, Asriel." I said, before noticing a blister that grew on my lower lip.  
“Y...yeah! We'll be strong! We'll free everyone." Just as he seemed to have lightened up, he said "I'll go get the flowers." as he shut down once again.  
-  
He handed me a handful of flowers and a pack of chocolate. I thought that would be enough to end it all.  
“After I eat this, Asriel, I want you to call mom and dad. I want to see them in my last moments.” I said, hands shaking, not sure if it was my emotions or the flowers. “And I want you to take me to see the flowers in the human village, I planted them and I want to see how they shine under the direct sun. You would love it, too.”  
“I will." He said.  
I took a bite of the chocolate so that it will fill my mouth, then stuffed as many flowers as I could. They were bitter, but the chocolate did help. Asriel hid the rest of the flowers under my bed and then went to get our parents.  
As I was dying, my mouth opened and closed without me wanting it, letting my bloody spit pour out, before I passed out, not quite dead. I was barely aware that my parents walked in.  
Chara... can you hear me? We want you to wake up.”...”  
“Chara! You have to stay determined! You can't give up... You are the future of humans and monsters...” That made me determined, but not to wake up.  
“Psst... Chara... Please... wake up... I don't like this plan anymore.  
I... I... no, I said... I said I'd never doubt you. Six, right? We just have to get six... And we'll do it together, right?”  
That's when I suddenly felt nothing, none of the pain. I assumed my soul has left my body.  
-  
Then I felt. I saw, smelled, and heard.  
Everything was so sad, but those weren't my emotions, they were Azzy's.  
He looked to his hands. They now had five fingers and some of the furr wasn't there.  
It doesn’t matter, I need to leave and take Chara to see the flowers. He thought.  
He left our parents in their grief that has turned to shock, frozen. He ran through the golden corridor and the throne room. He ran to see what the sun is really like. He wanted to see if it was as bright as I had told him.  
Soon enough, Asriel crossed the barrier. The sun filled him with joy and made his eyes a bit sore. It was setting now.  
The climb down the mountain was much easier for him then it was for me to climb up it. Maybe he was a mountain- goat. My amusement made him giggle. I guessed I wasn't completely dead after all.  
We reached my garden. Asriel sat in the garden, holding my body. The flowers looked stunning, even more beautiful then I imagined.  
My emotions made Asriel so focused on the flowers, he didn’t even notice the human screaming in terror.  
-  
“It killed them! It killed a child!” They screamed.  
Soon enough the whole village came to the garden, yelling and pointing their guns at him.  
He noticed them. What are those? He looked at the guns.  
My fear made it clear to him that they were weapons.  
“Please stop, I don’t want to fight you.” He said calmly.  
“It speaks!” A lady yelled.  
“Kill it! Before it takes our children!” Was that… my mother? I sent a feeling of anger to Asriel. He needs to fight them! They deserved it anyways!  
“Open fire!!!” A man shouted, causing all those filthy humans to shoot him.  
FIGHT! I thought the loudest I could. THEY KNOW NO MERCY! THEY WON’T STOP UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD!  
Even though he was stronger than any of the humans, with his magic and my human soul, Asriel refused to fight.  
“Please! Tell them to stop!” He yelled at the crowd, “Somebody help me!”  
But nobody came.  
-  
He started to run up the mountain, his dust spreading all over the place. He went inside the barrier. Mom and dad can heal me! Then everything will be ok! He thought.  
When he reached the throne room, the last thing Asriel saw was the first flower that bloomed.  
Then he died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did you know? There is a popular children's game involving holding a buttercup up to the chin, a yellow reflection is supposed to indicate a fondness for butter.


	3. Second Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Not so brave yet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If the cuteness of Althea doesn't alarm you, be aware that some fucked up shit is gonna go down.

I woke up to the sound of my sister’s playing and see a strand of ginger hair on my face. I didn’t hate its color that much, but the fact that it was a bright orange made people notice how long it was more often.  
“You can’t hurt me, Lord Stone!” Althea called out. I love the girl, but she can get so loud sometimes.  
She waved one of her “action- figures” and yelled, “While it’s true that normally you are more powerful than me, Dr. Rock, You cannot hurt me while I’m wearing this Manly Bandana!”  
'Wait what?!' I jumped out of bed and looked straight at Althea.  
“Oh no you don’t! I told you not to take that out!” I told her. That was mine, and our father would kill me if he sees it.  
I told him once that I didn’t want to wear a dress on the first day of the year. He bruised me so badly I now have to wear gloves to hide my marks.  
“Come on, Andy, father didn’t even wake up yet!” She said.  
I looked at my alarm clock. It was 5:30.  
“Althea, you should be asleep right about now,” I said, “is something wrong?”  
The small bedroom was lit by the early sun of dawn. I could see her expression quickly changing from horror to a sweet smile, “Everything’s fine.” She said.  
‘She learned that from watching me.’ I thought, ‘She shouldn’t be so scared. Ever.’ But I wasn’t strong enough to defend her.  
“It’s ok Althea, you remember what father told us right? Those screams are just his TV, nothing to be scared about.” I repeated his excuses. I wanted to believe those lies, I feared the truth too much to even think about it.  
“You really think so, Andy?” She asked. Althea was everything to me, I didn’t want her to be as scared as I was.  
“Yeah,” I said, looking outside the window. “Now put that bandana back and go to bed.”  
“Sigh…” She said, (Yup. ‘Said’.) before putting it back. 

I waited for her to fall asleep, looking at her. She had the same orange hair and tiny nose that I had. We would have looked like twins if not for the six-year gap between us.  
When her breaths were deep and slow, I got out of bed and looked at the mirror. I saw a fragile girl wearing oversized pajamas and a frown.  
I took out the bandana, it had abs drawn on it by yours truly and was a cool shade of blue. I tied my hair in it so that it looked shorter and that the abs were on my forehead. I then puffed out my chest and squared my shoulders. ‘Now I look better!’  
I looked at the clock to find out it was 6:15, just 15 minutes before he wakes us up.  
I put away the bandana, trying to ignore the hair that was now reaching the middle of my back and got back to bed.

Just as I fell asleep, I was woken up by father’s touch. He rubbed my shoulder and said, “Wake up, daughter.”  
I hated when he called me that but was always too afraid to tell him.

After he told me to not forget my gloves, he walked out.  
“He said he’s going to work till late today.” My sister said, “You looked cool in that bandana, by the way!”  
“Oh, you saw that?” I turned even redder than I usually was out of embarrassment.  
“Yeah, maybe you should wear it to school today? Father won’t pick us up later so he won’t find out!” She added with a smile, revealing a dimple on her right cheek.  
“Heh, I don’t think so.” I got picked on enough as it was.  
I tied my hair at the back of my head and wore a light blue T-shirt that was big on my small frame. I thought I looked slightly more boyish that way.  
I helped Althea with braiding her hair in a nice, tidy braid and wore my pink tough gloves. off we went.

Our day at school was just like any other day:  
Gym class with the girls? Check.  
The teacher basically mocking me in class because I didn’t want to read out loud and embarrass myself? Check.  
My classmates calling me a “tomboy” behind my back but making sure I heard? Check.

And I never stood up for myself because I was too goddamn scared. I guessed I didn’t have anyone else to blame but myself.

I waited for Althea to finish her last lesson when I took out my scissors. I was in the empty school playground and it was a cloudy afternoon.  
It would have been so easy to just cut my hair, then and there. I would have looked so much better. ‘Maybe I could even wear my bandana without being ashamed!’ I thought.  
Then Althea came running to me, smiling, “Hey Andy! Andy, guess what??” She asked, hiding something behind her back.  
I put the scissors back and asked: “What is it, sis?”  
“I got an A+ on my math test!” She answered, proudly showing me her 2nd-grade math test that had a big, red ‘A+’ written on it.  
“Good job!” I said with a big smile, lifting her up and swirling around, “Maybe we could stop by the grocery store on our way and I’ll buy you a candy?” I was proud to have such a cool, smart sister. Maybe she just took all the good genes.  
“Haha! Yeah! Candy! Candy!” She giggled.

When we arrived at the grocery store, we were greeted by the owner of the shop, Mr. Lopez, “Hi kids, nice seein’ you here. How're you and your dad doing?” He said with a New-York accent and a big smile.  
“He’s normal,” I say, a bitter smile on my lips. “How are you, Mr. Lopez?”  
“Meh, I'm good. Brought my son to work today, he’s ‘bout you age,” He said.  
Mr. Lopez had a scruffy beard, brown skin and a deep, calming voice. “Why don’t you three play ‘round back for a while? I think it’s gonna rain soon and I’m sure your dad doesn’t want you kids to catch a cold.”  
“Althea, you want to stay?” I asked quietly. I didn’t really mind, 'I might even make a friend for once.'  
“Umm…” She made an exaggerated thinking pose, “Only if you get me two candies instead of one!”  
“Yeah, we’ll stay for now, Mr. Lopez.” I said, “Just call our father for us, please?”  
“Sure thing kiddo,” He said with a lazy smile, “my kid’s in the back, probably buried in a book. His name’s Cal.”

When we got to the back of the store we saw a kid laying on some kind of container, reading a joke book.  
“Hi, my name’s Andy and this is my sister, Althea.” I said with a slightly deepened voice. “Your father told us we can come and hang out with you, would that be ok?”  
“Sure,” he said, “The name’s Cal, Cal Lopez.” He got his face out of the book and held out his gloved hand for a shake. He looked a lot like his father, with the same lazy smile and chubby face, but as a kid slightly older then Althea with slightly lighter skin and light cyan eyes.  
When I shook his hand, a fart noise suddenly came.  
“W-what-?” I said, face red.  
“It’s just the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick…” He looked at me, amused, “Heh, don’t take it too seriously, bud. My dad let me raid the pranks section in the store so now I got lotsa this kinda stuff.”  
“So, are there any good ones in there?” Althea pointed at the book.  
“Nah, the only jokes in there are the ones so bad they become funny.” Cal answered, “You wanna hear some of these though?” He still had his lazy smile on, as if we can’t ruin his ego with just one ‘no’.  
“Sure.” I said, trying to match his lazy grin. This guy might be weird, but he’s still much cooler than I was.  
“Alright, ahem,” He said, reading from the book with way too much ease for a kid his age, “What did one raindrop say to the other?”  
“What?” Althea asked with a bright smile.  
“Two’s a company, but three is a cloud.” His smile widened.  
“I… I don’t get it…” Althea said, slightly disappointed.  
“It’s a thing couples say, ‘three is a crowd’ is kind of like a hint to get a third friend to leave.” I explained, “That’s a good one, Cal.”  
“Thanks,” He said, looking away, “I’m bored, wanna play something else?”  
I thought for a second and said: “HI BORED I’M ANDY!”  
I didn’t want Cal to feel bad about his joke kind of failing, so I pushed my fear away for a second.  
“Ha!” Cal laughed, “Heheh! Nice.”  
“Hehehe! I got it this time!” Althea said.  
“Hey, kids sounds like you’re havin’ fun.” Mr. Lopez suddenly came into the room, “Your dad told me he wanted you to go home as soon as possible and it stopped raining for now.”  
“Aw, ok.” I said, “Guess we’ll go then. It was nice meeting you Cal.”  
“Yeah, you’re one cool guy Andy.” He said with his lazy smile.  
“Y-you too…” I said with the dumbest smile ever.  
“Bye!” Althea said.  
“Bye kid,” Cal said, even though Althea was only younger than him in about a year or so. “see you guys later?”  
I look at my sister and she nods at me with a smile. “Sure, we’ll come by after school tomorrow.”  
I bought Althea the dinosaur-shaped gummies she liked and we started walking home.

Our father wasn’t home when we got there. It started raining when we almost got home, so we both needed to change our wet cloths.  
“We should take a shower, do you want to go in first?” I asked.  
“Nah, you go. I wanna play for a bit now.” She said, looking at her toys. I assumed she looked at them out of anticipation and left her be.  
I got into the shower, avoiding the mirror, and began washing. The water was hot and made me realize how cold I was before. I thought about my meeting with Cal and smiled. ‘He called me a cool guy!’ I thought with a smile, before suddenly becoming aware of my long hair.  
Then I began thinking about running away. I thought about it often lately. ‘But I can’t leave Althea with him alone,’ I thought, ‘and it would be too dangerous for her to come with me.’  
I always dreamed of traveling to Mount Ebott, slaying the monster that had killed the child from our village two years ago. Some people didn’t believe in monsters but I know it’s true, I saw it for myself. The monster had the built of a human but was covered with hair (well, it was kinda balding or something?) and had the face of a goat. Some people say it was the devil but I never really believed in those kinds of stuff. 

My thoughts were cut off by a terrified scream. Althea’s voice. I put my bathrobe on and ran as quickly as I could to the basement. ‘Did he get home? Find her sniffing around? No, he promised me he wouldn’t touch her. Then what's going on?!’  
When I got to the basement I froze in front of the big metal door, it was slightly open. I wasn’t allowed in there. After a second of hearing Althea’s heavy breathing, I shook my head and opened it.  
Opening the door, I discovered that wasn’t Althea’s breathing. Althea has frozen in the corner of the room, near the door. But that wasn’t the first thing I noticed.  
What was breathing heavily was in a dark cage, not dark enough not to see, unfortunately. It was thin, so thin and pale that its eyes were popping out as if they were glowed on, it was probably human once but it didn’t look or feel that way anymore.  
“…Please…help me…” it said with the rustiest voice I’ve ever heard. I barely even noticed the words though, since the thing was grasping at air with its hand, outside the cage and towards me and Althea. 

I held in my scream, grabbed Althea’s arm and got out of there as soon as I could. I closed the door as quickly as I managed but it was heavy.  
“No… Please… Let me eat…” I heard, right before closing the door with a big ‘boom’.  
‘That… that wasn’t real, right? That can’t be. Those kinds of things aren’t real.’ I thought, tears running down my shocked face.  
“It is real, that wasn’t the first monster you’ve seen right?” Althea answered, making me realize I’ve said that out loud, “That was just a skeleton. Father must be doing science experiments on it and that’s ok, right? Skeletons are mean, right?”  
“Y-yeah, you’re right. That must have been a skeleton.” No, it wasn’t, but it sure did look like one, “Don’t worry, all the other monsters live far away inside the mountain. They can’t hurt you.”  
'And I'm not going to let those, or the monster that lives with us, hurt her.' I promised myself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got kinda nauseous writing that one scene.


	4. Second Human- Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andy gets braver.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some fun, some sad and not enough scary for my taste ;0

We sat on the stairs in silence, before I broke it off: “Father’s going to come home soon, isn’t he? We shouldn’t tell him that we saw, he will get mad.”

“I won’t tell him.” Althea said.

It took us a while (I'm not sure how long) to head to the bedroom.

"Alright."

When he got home, I was reading my sister her bedtime story, “When Fluffy Bunny finally left their rabbit-hole, they looked up into the bright sun with a big smile and yelled ‘pick-a-boo’. The sun was so surprised it-“ I stopped reading, noticing she had fallen asleep.

I could hear the front door opening and quickly got into my own bed. I heard the footsteps getting closer and closer until I felt his breath on my ear: "Don't worry, father won't hurt you. Father doesn't hurt nice girls."

I could still feel his breath even when he has left the room. I decided then and there that I wasn’t going to let Althea keep living with him.

Even after I counted 100 sheep, I couldn’t fall asleep. It was bothering me, I could still hear it in my head, desperate and weak: "Please… Let me eat…”

I got out of bed and walked to the kitchen, terrified, as usual. I took the box of my Aplets& Contents snacks from the fridge. I took those because I made them and no one else in the house seemed to like them, so if father did notice (which seemed unlikely) he wouldn't blame Althea.

I walked down the spiral stairs and slowly opened the metal door. 

I approached the cage, despite the burning fear in my chest. As I opened the door, my heartbeat drowned out every other sound.

I unwrapped the candy and threw it inside since I didn't want my dad to find the wrapper in the cage.

“Th…ank… you…” I heard from inside, just as I finished closing the door.

I went back to bed but didn’t fall asleep at first. I was busy thinking about what to do. I didn't trust the sheriff, 'She was too rash and whatever plan she'd have would probably get Althea in danger.

.. Wait, we have a friend, don't we?' I thought, 'I think I can trust him.’

That thought made me feel slightly more at ease.

I was woken up by Althea’s distress mumbling. I came over to her bed and hugged her. Her breaths became calmer, at least that's considering what I heard behind her huge ginger hair that was blocking not only my eyes but also some of my air. I managed to find a breathable place for my head and fell asleep right away. 

We went to school as if it was just another day. Except I put my bandana and a change of clothes (the coolest clothes I had), my box of money that I saved over the years, and a bag with Althea's things: her toothbrush, a lot of her clothes and an action figure I knew was her favorite, while she wasn’t looking. I didn’t know how, or just what, I could explain to her.

During math class, I started to think about what will happen next, and how I could explain to Cal. I figured that I just wasn’t able to tell Althea.

A second passed after the bell rung and half the class was already gone.

“Andy? Are you alright? You seem sort of off today…” the class president, Gittel, asked, "Do you not understand the material?"

“I’m fine.” I answered quickly and stone-faced. I didn’t want to embarrass myself any further since I had a bit of a crush on Gittel. She was the only person in class that bothered talking to me, despite me barely responding most of the time. 

“Why even bother with that freak, Gittel? She can’t even understand how to dress, how could she ever understand math?” a girl I never really bothered to learn the name of said, earning a giggle from her ‘friends’.

"You know what? Your clothes would have looked better on a boy…" The girl blabbered on, “Maybe we should cut your hair off so that you really looked like one!” She smiled at me in anticipation.

"That won't happen," Gittel said simply, not looking at me nor at the girl.

‘Screw it.' I got up, took my scissors out and walked to the bathroom mirror. 

I cut a big chunk of my hair and my head felt lighter. I cut another one and another and another until all that was left was a very short layer of curly orange hair.

I came back into the class and threw the cut-off hair on the girl’s bag.

“Your green bag doesn’t match your orange skirt. There, that looks better." I said to look at her shocked face with a bit of a smirk. 

Everyone in the room looked shocked and one of the bystanders dropped their pen.

“Oh, and Gittel?” I said, causing her to look me in the eye and close her mouth.

“Yes?” She wore a worried smile.

I swallow my spit and say: “You look nice today!” before walking out quickly and feeling my face go red.

“Your hair looks good that way!" I heard from behind me.

‘Hell yes!’ I thought while heading to the school playground, with the dumbest smile on my face.

Althea said goodbye to her friends and walked over to me. When she saw my hair her jaw fell and her mouth started to form a smile.

“Your hair!” She managed to say, pointing at my head.

“Yeah.”

“It’s so short! Who cut it? Why? When? It looks weird but I like it! Does this mean I get to play with your bandana?” She asked with excitement.

“Um…” I started to digest the big chunk of questions and statements, “I cut it because I wanted to, just now. You don’t get to play with my bandana, it’s mine. Oh, and thank you.” I looked at her with a smile.

“Now let’s go play with Cal again.” I added.

“OK! I hope I understand his jokes this time…” She said, looking at the ground.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he has some jokes you’ll understand.” I said.

“Enough chit-chat! Let’s go!” She cut the conversation off, leaving no room for arguments. 

We were greeted by the familiar smile of Mr. Lopez as we walked into the grocery store. He was wearing a blue hoodie which seemed weird, considering the warm weather outside; before I noticed how cold the store itself was because of the air-conditioning. 

“Heya kids!" He said, before looking at my head, trying to hide his surprise and failing, "Whoa! When did that happen?"

"I just… cut it at school?" I answered, slightly worried of his reaction I changed the topic, "Is Cal around back already?"

"Yeah, he usually finishes his homework by now, maybe not today though… He asked for my help before but…" He looked to the side with an awkward smile, "He's in a math class for kids twice his age and the advanced one too… got those smarts from his mom…"

Mr. Lopez looked slightly sad? I wasn’t sure, it was an expression I had never seen before.

While he was looking at something on the counter and Althea was checking out some toys, I slid my saving box behind the trash can next to Mr. Lopez’s sit. I knew I could never pay him back for what I was about to do but I had to repay them, even if it was just a little.

“Hi Cal, are you doing your homework?” I couldn’t come up with something better to ask.

"Yup." He answered simply, busy with some complicated- looking math, the kind that had letters in it, "Y’know what? I could use a break. Wanna play a card game?"

He put his homework in the bag sitting next to him and pulled a deck of cards out.

"Oh! Oh! Do you know the game Speed?” Althea suddenly asked.

“Isn’t that game meant for only two players?” I said.

“It’s ok, I can be the judge.” Cal said, “I don’t really remember the rules anyways.” He had a tired smile on so I assumed he didn’t actually want to play right now.

After a while, Althea was in the lead, but I wasn’t giving up so easily.

“Oh no! Where DID all my cards go?” Althea said with an exaggerate dramatic tone, “Do you know, Andy?”

“Laugh it up while you can, sis!” I matched her dramatics, "You won't be able to beat me while I have THIS on!"

I pulled out the manly bandana out of my backpack and wrapped it around my head.

“Ohhhh he’s got you good!!!” Cal exclaimed, even though he probably had no idea what was going on.

Whether it was Cal’s cheering or some kind of magic from the bandana, I won the round, causing me to be in the lead.

“Bandana? More like banda-yes!" I said, causing us all to laugh.

"Haha! Would ya look at that!” Cal laughed, "It was CARD at first but I think I get it now."

"Hehehe!" Althea laughed, causing Cal's usual smile to go up to his eyes, "Cal, could you take my place for now, please? I have to pee."

"Yup, the bathrooms are right over there." He said while pointing to what I assumed was where the bathroom was.

I took Althea's arm and pulled her into a hug.

After a few seconds of silence, she realized I wasn't letting go soon.

“I’m just going to the bathroom, bro.” She said while returning the hug.

“I know, just thought you needed a hug after that terrible loss.” I answered with humor lacing my words.

“Hey, Cal?” I said while still looking to where Althea left.

“Yeah?” He answered.

“I’m going to leave now,” I said, “and I won’t be coming back for a while.”

“Whoa, did I offended you or somethin'?" He said, smile disappearing while he looked straight at me. His worried look caused me to look anywhere but at him.

“No, I meant I’m leaving my house.” I tried to explain, “Althea and I can’t keep leaving with my father, but I can’t take her with me.”

“What? Hold up, where are you going then? Where will she stay?" Cal tried his best to get a grasp at what was going on.

“I left all of my savings behind the trash can near your dad’s stand.” I couldn’t say it word for word, for a reason I didn’t understand.

Cal realized what I meant by that and thought for a moment. "Where are you going? Why can't you stay with us?" He tried to stay patient so he could get as much information as he could, I understood, despite never doing the same.

“I’m going to Mt. Ebott.” I said, “I don’t want to make it even harder on you and your dad.”

I took out Althea’s things that were in a plastic bag and put them on the floor.

“That doesn’t matter, Andy!” Cal suddenly raised his tone, causing me to look at him, “Mt. Ebott is dangerous, why would you go there?”

"So that he won't follow me or look for Althea," I answered with a steady tone and grabbed my bag, "I'm sorry, Cal. It was nice knowing you, you were a good friend."

I ran out, ignoring him calling out for me to stop. If there was a better way, I couldn't see it.

I started to slow down into a walk as I got closer to the house. I wanted to leave my father a note, telling him that Althea and I went to Mt. Ebott together.

I reached the house and looked at father's car, realizing that he was inside the house.

'Alright, ok, this is fine,' I thought, taking a pen and paper out of my school-bag, 'I'll just leave it here quickly. Don't forget to make a lot of tracks.' I reminded myself.

I wrote the note and placed it under the car's windshield wiper before noticing something in the see-through door of the garage. I saw it from the corner of my eye, then turned to look.

He was watching me with the biggest smile I've ever seen, it stretched farther then I thought possible. His eyes were open wide as he looked at me through his round glasses and I could see he noticed me looking at him.

I trusted my fear and ran away as fast as I could. As I heard him running and laughing from behind me I yelled “Althea! Run quickly!”

It wasn't difficult in the slightest to yell with a “fake” terrified tone. I ran so fast I felt like my legs will tear open and my throat will catch fire inside-out.

I reached a cave with a big hole in the ground and stopped for only a second. I thought faster then I could grasp (maybe 'thought' isn't the right word) about what I feard more- the complete darkness of the big hole in the ground, filled with blood-thirsty monsters, or my father.

After that same second had passed, I jumped quickly after seeing his never-ending smile in my mind.

A crushing pain in my legs was the last thing I felt before I passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please tell me what you think and sorry this took so long


	5. Second Human- Last Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Andy wonders through the underground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When you fall on a child's grave... big OOF.

I woke up to a tingling sensation in my legs. When I looked at them, what I could see only as some kind of goat monster was sending some sort of magic to my legs. It looked just like the one that was carrying Chara, but this one was hairier and much bigger.  
“Ah! G-get off of me!” I said, crawling away with my legs, which seemed to have forgotten the unbearable pain that made me black-out before.  
“Ah, do not be afraid, my child,” the creator spoke…?  
‘Did I hit my head too?!’ I thought as it spoke,  
“I am Toriel, caretaker of the Ruins.  
“I am afraid you have fallen on a human’s grave.  
“They were dear to me, you see, before…”  
Its strangely red eyes fell to the ground under me, causing me to jump to my feet.  
I assumed that the monster might have killed them by accident.  
“I-is that Chara…?” I asked, feeling my heart beating in my throat. I only knew their name and that they had brown hair, nothing more.  
There was silence for a moment.  
“You are from that human village, are you not?” she suddenly asked, “you watched as they killed him, haven’t you?”  
The giant goat looked at me with fury in its burning eyes.  
Fear almost paralyzed me, but I remembered I had to come back to Althea. I ran past the creature and continued running before realizing it wasn’t casing me.

I stopped for a bit, to catch my breath and look around me with the meeting with the monster still at the back of my mind.

‘I knew monsters are real!’ I thought, despite the oldest of our village saying that what we saw wasn’t real, I knew it!  
My pride was replaced with curiosity and slight fear as the world around me became black including me, all I could see when I looked down was a glowing orange heart where my chest used to be and…  
In front of me was another strange creator, it looked like a giant fly only… they were crying.  
I didn’t fear it, despite the circumstance, they seemed like they needed help.  
“Hey, are you ok?” I said, trying to console them with a small smile, “are you scared? I’m scared too, you know.”  
The creator burst into tears and ran away, even though I did nothing to threaten them.

After looking around for a while, I noticed a few strange things:  
The ground was full of red leaves, even though it wasn’t fall season or anything,  
Even though people have tried to get evidence of the monsters in Mt.Ebott and never found it, there were several small holes in the ground above me, letting the sun-light get in,  
The strangest thing though, was some kind of buttons-game on the ground.  
On the wall in front of the buttons was a switch and the only door that let out was closed shut.  
After looking around a bit, I noticed a sign near the door, it read:  
“Only the fearless may proceed.  
Brave ones, foolish ones.  
Both walk not the middle road.”  
‘ “Brave ones, foolish ones”, huh?’ I thought, ‘well I’m at least one of those.’  
Never did figure out which one though.  
I tried walking only on the buttons that weren’t in the middle from left to right and in the direction on the switch. The door opened right after I flipped the switch.  
Filled with a sense of glee I moved forward.  
I entered a hallway with running water beneath the path, and a couple of switches that didn’t seem to work.  
Thirsty, I kneeled down, took my pink gloved off to reveal my bruised hands and put the gloves in my brown striped sweatshirt’s pocket. I cupped some of the water in my palms, wondering if they were drinkable.  
After dipping my tongue in the water and realizing they were clean after all, I adjusted to a cross-legged sitting and began drinking.  
I sat there for a while, trying to relax for a bit, and didn’t notice how I laid down on the ground before… 

“Wake up, my child.”  
I jolted up in what I realized was a bed, and that the goat-monster was sitting near it.  
“Wha- where am I?!” I asked, raising my voice a little.  
“I am sorry, I just thought I’d give you a more comfortable place to sleep,” it said, “welcome to my small house.”  
Up close I could see that it had big eyelashes, and that its eyes were in fact brown and not as red as they appeared before. I was still worried, of course, but the monster didn’t seem as scary as earlier.  
‘Maybe I should try to be nice to it-uh, her,’ I thought, ‘maybe she’s only trying to help.’  
“Th-thank you, Toriel,” I said, “sorry for freaking out earlier.”  
“It is alright, my child,” she said, “Chara was also quite frightened at first, but they ended up asking to stay.”  
“O-oh,” I said, like the poet that I was, remembering how the last time we talked about them ended.  
It seemed Toriel was thinking the same thing.  
“I’ll be in the living room, reading my book,” she said, “feel free to rest or look around, I would be delighted if you join me later.”  
She got up, took her chair, and left the room.

I sat on the bed for a while, looking at the room and thinking.  
The entire room was painted in a warm orange tone and there were a couple of stuffed toys besides the bed.  
‘This must have been Chara’s room, right?’ I thought, ‘it seems nice, this bed is comfy.’  
Remembering how the monster probably killed them made me even more frightened then before.  
‘She called me “my child”…’ I thought, ‘what if I’ll end up the same way they did?’  
The thought terrified me, and reminded me that I had to get out of here and go fight the bad monsters. For all the other kids that might fall down here.  
‘Maybe I could kill a skeleton, if those are even real,’ I thought, ‘Althea would be so thrilled!’  
With new-found courage, I got up and put my gloves back on.

Trying to look around for an exit, I walked into another bedroom. Its walls were a light purple, so I thought it was Toriel’s room, since her dress was also purple.  
‘Maybe I could find out more if I snoop through her stuff!’ I thought, and opened a drawer of the desk. Inside was a journal and a heavy scent of dust.  
I opened the last page:  
“Today was an interesting day.  
To invite all monster kind to move to the new-found capital ‘New Home’, despite it being close to the barrier, Tori decided we should show an example.  
This is the last page of this journal, so I guess I can just leave it in this drawer. If you are reading this, feel free to read it all, I’ve nothing to hide from you, kind reader!  
Date: August 3rd, 2010”  
I realized this wasn’t Toriel’s journal since the writer mentioned ‘Tori’. Maybe it was her husband? I never did find out.

“Up already, I see?” Toriel said, “Um, I wanted you to know how glad I am to have someone here.  
“There are so many old books I want to share.  
I want to show you my favorite bug-hunting spot.”  
“Um actually…” I cut her off, “I was wondering… How can I leave this place? I mean I’m very grateful that you let me stay here but I should really be going now.”  
“Well, talk to me again if you need anything.” She said.  
‘Is she…’ I thought, ‘is she lonely? Is she really planning on keeping me here forever, just because she’s lonely?!’  
I thought of my father, he probably adopted us just to keep from being alone all the time. He was bad, she must have been too. She IS a monster, after all.  
Searching all over the house, I found a stairway down. Just the sight of it sent shivers down my spine. I ran away from it and into the living room once again.  
As Toriel seemed busy with her book, I looked through the gardening tools, trying to find some kind of weapon. And just my luck! they were all filled down.  
I pulled my gloves harder over my hands as I walked down the stairs, until I realized it was no basement, it was a large purple hallway.  
‘My way out!’  
Field with newfound courage, I ran to the end of the hall and turned left, seeing a big, purple door with the same strange symbol on it as Toriel’s dress.  
Feeling a slight weight on my chest, I opened the door.

“Crunch”   
Looking down, I noticed the sound was coming from the snow beneath my foot.   
I might have questioned the weird climate underground, if not for all of my remaining brain cells freezing on the spot.   
So I kept moving, hoping to find someplace warmer. One step at a time, I moved with my arms wrapped around me, missing my warm hair.   
I was walking on a pass in a forest when I reached a clearing with some kind of checkpoint, empty.   
I got inside it when I heard a very loud voice: “SO WHO ARE WE VISITING, ANYWAYS? I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS ‘FRIEND IN THE WOODS’ PERSON!”   
The voice sounded like a kid… teen? Maybe he was even my age? Another voice answered in a strange language that I did not know. That one sounded like an adult, a tired one at that.  
“OH! DO YOU THINK SHE MIGHT HAVE SOME OF THAT PIE IN THE ‘RUINS’? THE BUTTERSCOTCH ONE, NOT THE SNA-“  
He was cut off by that second voice, they sounded really close now...  
The adult said, “PAPYRUS,” and then more in that symbol language.   
“U-UM! HUMAN! MY DAD TOLD ME TO TELL YOU THAT HE CAN SEE YOU AND THAT YOU SHOULD COME OUT NOW…! PLEASE?”  
‘Oh, crap…’ I thought as I lifted my head to see…  
“Skeletons?!”   
The younger one was wearing a white Tshirt, blue shorts and a red scarf. He was at least 5’8 feet tall and seemed confused when seeing me.   
“WHAT IS THAT?” he ‘whispered’ to the adult.  
The adult was taller than the younger by at least a head and was wearing a long, black lab coat. He responded with a shocked tone, and added something urgent as he stepped before the younger one.  
“NO!” he jumped closer to me, “YOU STEP BACK!”  
Before I knew it everything turned black and white again. I felt the fear trying to paralyze me again but I wasn’t having it.   
I threw a pink-leather-rapped punch. My heart was beating right out of my chest as I watched what seemed to be a black wall appear between my fist and the smaller skeleton. The punch landed, sending the unfamiliar shockwave up my entire arm.   
As I stared at my fist, confused, the weird language pulled me out of my daze and forced me to instead look up.   
His skull shot back to me as I heard the crunching of snow running further and further away.   
His eye sockets were closed as he said, in a strange but understandable voice: “You shouldn’t have done that.”  
His eyes suddenly opened and revealed two glowing yellow pupils, for only a second as he disappeared and appeared slightly further away from me. His pupils back to a white.   
“I just might have spared you, since you are a child but…” he said, “You’ve proven your human nature, so it seems we only need six more now.”  
‘He’s… collecting humans?’ I thought, ‘six more…’  
I felt my heartbeat in my fists as I thought of Althea. ‘What if he kills her too?’   
For the first time in my life, I was shaking but not out of fear. My stomach wasn’t scattered, it was tied into a knot, tight and strong.  
For the first time in my life, I felt… BRAVE.  
Suddenly, bones shot at me from all directions. I ran around randomly, hoping they won’t hit me but I only dodged two out of the around twenty that were shot at me.   
Not waiting a moment, I ran fists-first at the skeleton. He simply moved aside.  
Next thing I knew, two more bones hit me and I fell to the snow. It was so cold.  
The last thing I remember thinking about was Althea’s sad face.   
‘Don’t be sad! Look, maybe I didn’t win but… at least I fought a skeleton! That counts for something… right?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When Andy could understand Gaster, it was because Dr.G was speaking in Aster font.


End file.
